Read Chapter 2: “Maintain Key Friendships” from The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers

We moms need friends. Simple as that. We need other women that understand the rigors of being a mom who we can talk to when we’re feeling down and who we want to share life’s joys and celebrations with.  Every mother needs connections with women on different levels. We need an inner circle and outer circle of friends, if you will; women who satisfy our longing for emotional connection and others who provide us with comfort and affection on a lighter level.

Women comprising our inner circle are usually few in number. These are friends who can step into our kitchens at dinnertime and take over feeding our kids, put them to bed, and clean up the peanut butter on the floor and the jelly on the chairs when we suddenly fall apart from tragic news.

Moms, loving your friends and cultivating the kinds of friendships that buttress you up when life tries to beat you down takes work. Commit to doing the work because it is in your best interest. Loving friends extraordinarily means interrupting our work schedules when a friend is in crisis, speaking boldly in her defense when she needs you to be there, and being ready to step into her shoes if tragedy makes its way into her life and she for some reason can’t function at her normal level. Be there.

ASSIGNMENT:

Accept that cultivating your friendships takes work and commit to doing that work this week. Think of the two or three women in your life that mean the world to you. Pick up the phone—and no, don’t text your girlfriends–CALL THEM. Chat, even if you just have 5 minutes to catch up. Do whatever it takes to create a habit of touching base with these women—think of them as your tribe—weekly.  Create a calendar reminder, put it in your iPhone, place a sticky note on your fridge—anything that makes you stop and pick the phone to connect with these women that will mean so much to you over the years.

After you’ve completed this week’s exercise, make a mental note of how it made you feel to connect with your inner circle of friends. Now, go back and re-read the list you made last week and reflect on who you are as a mother and the friends that encircle you. Soak in those good feelings and know that you are loved.